Sunnyside Cafe and Sunset Walk's Unncessary Uphill Battle for Success

There are certain locations that can only survive because of the weekend, despite its overall quality, service, and nice décor and atmosphere. Flower Café, or Sunnyside Café is one of these examples.

The appeal of the classic modern coffee shop is the spacing, the quietness, and the simplicity of just ordering a nice sandwich and a nice coffee while among friends or working on the laptop by oneself. Sunnyside Café is an expanded space arguably Starbucks-sized that features a mix of sandwiches, bagels, desserts, drinks, and even with some acai for a little Latin American twist. The desserts are delivered from a talented bakery, the coffee is made fresh. I’ve been here several times and have yet to be disappointed, even if the price point can skew a little to the higher side.

I think their standouts include their egg-based sandwiches, especially their egg and mozzarella sandwich on multi-grain.

What irks me however is the absolute wasted space the café is located in. This place can indeed succeed, the area can see more traffic if they’re willing to cater into the needs of Central Florida a bit better. I know Estefan Kitchen doesn’t have anywhere near the revenue pull it had during the Downtown Disney days when it was known as Bongos. I know most of the spots here are struggling to stay within the profit margins throughout 80% of the month, banking everything on those infamous weekends when this area attracts crowds from the entertainment deserts of Intermission City, Clermont, Davenport, and even Horizons West and Winter Springs by select groups trying to avoid the wacky Disney Springs crowds.

So why not have affordable housing within this space? Why are you solely relying on hotel guests and timeshare folks who more than likely will venture towards Disney and Universal?

Are you telling me that within the several square miles of the property you couldn’t throw in a couple affordable apartment complexes? This all feels like a layup, especially considering the location and current housing situation of Central Florida. The area already has a supermarket with Target, is close to a popular gas station, and has nearby access to several important roads and highways. Why not invest some of the dead space to apartments? This would be an investment that can pay off in dividends as you could have a few thousand residents always within distance of these shops and restaurants and eateries. This would be the one advantage over Disney Springs, having permanent residents in your space.

Let’s be honest, you’re not going to be able to compete against Disney Springs, CityWalk, and even the ever-growing Icon Park. Even Old Town with the nearby World Food Trucks is likely taking in some of your potential traffic. But the one thing they all have in common is that all these spots are almost fully surrounded by hotels instead of permanent/longterm residency. Sunset Walk can buck the trend with one to three apartments with hundreds of residents in each of them, and providing them a good location with walkable access to most amenities can result in more money being spent in your space throughout the week, not just the weekend.

Kissimmee and the 192 corridor is always undergoing changes because of all the closures of failed chunks of entertainment and dining that comes and goes within the area, as they always struggle to keep up with the changes happening in Disney World and the Tourism District. It can become downright ugly in areas, especially the stretch between World Food Trucks and the 192/535 intersection as well as the area that used to feature Arabian Nights and the Orlando Sun Resort.

Being pro-housing and especially being pro-affordable housing is being pro-business, period. Allow the opportunity for people to live within these spaces with peace and dignity and you’ll be rewarded with success in the long run. None of this is a knock on Sunnyside Café, this is basically me establishing that if the Sunset Walk/Promenade wants their places to succeed, they have to approach their space differently, they have to establish a better way to bringing in foot/car traffic to their venues. Just saving this space for timeshare and resort guests does not work, there is a bitter need for more housing and its tiring to see all the spacing in the edges of Lake Buena Vista and Kissimmee being reserved for just more of the same…more restaurants, more stores, more buildings, but not more livable space.

Celebration has survived despite being buried deep in Osceola County and not having as much commercial space because it’s an area built for housing first and business second---although admittingly its expensive housing. Nonetheless, the model exists, and the fact that many people live within the confides of where the businesses, restaurants, shops are located has resulted in most of these places remaining profitable for a very long time. Not saying Margaritaville Resort can become Celebration, but at the very least can improve its traffic with affordable housing.

Anyway back to the original subject, Sunnyside Café is nice and worthy of your time and money. And don’t worry, sadly odds are it won’t be busy when you visit.